Support service gets good report

An housing support service has been given the thumbs-up from the Care Inspectorate.

Homecare by Hera Limited, based in Skye Road, Prestwick, was rated ‘good’ across six quality indicators.

The firm is registered to provide a support service for adults and older people with physical or mental health difficulties in their own homes, or the wider community.

At the time of their inspection, the service covered areas across South and East Ayrshire and supported 105 people in the community.

An extract from the Care Inspectorate report said: “We spoke to people receiving care and support in their own home and to some of their relatives. People were happy with the quality of the care and support they received and stated that they were treated with respect by staff.

“We were told that, “Staff are always respectful”; and “They go above and beyond.”

It was noted how staff supported people to keep in contact with relatives through the use of technology.

The report said: “We saw an example of where video calls were supported between a person using the service and their relatives who lived in other countries. This gave relatives peace of mind that their family member was being well cared for and also helped to reduce social isolation for the person.”

The Care Inspectorate noted that the firm also has a newsletter that keeps people up to date with what is happening with the service and they are looking at ways to make the newsletter more user friendly by introducing an activity book.

The report continues: “We saw evidence that staff were responsive to people’s health needs and that the service worked alongside health professionals such as GPs, district nurses and the speech and language therapy team.We reviewed medication recording charts and found that these were well managed and audited. Overall, we concluded that the level of support of people’s wellbeing was good.”